Abused twins' 'father' wants custody

COEUR d'ALENE - Scott Lewis Crossley, of Sacramento, Calif., said he learned Friday morning that his estranged wife was arrested last month after subjecting her twin 2-year-old girls to the filthiest living conditions police here have ever seen.

"It was like somebody punched me in the gut," he said. "I could feel the air leaving my body."

Crossley, 41, believes they are likely his children - as does Elisabeth C. Crossley, 26, of Coeur d'Alene, who is sitting in Kootenai County jail awaiting trial for their alleged neglect and abuse. The Crossleys are separated, but Elisabeth filed for divorce in August.

He has been in touch with child protection authorities in Idaho and will be getting a paternity test soon. If they are his daughters, he wants custody, he said.

He explained in an interview Friday that if he had known sooner that the children were his, and living in such horrendous conditions with their mother, he "would have moved heaven and earth to get them away from her."

He said he was led to believe the girls were fathered by a man his wife cheated on him with. The girls were not given Crossley as a last name by their mother, according to court documents. He said she was six months pregnant before he found out from a friend that she was possibly carrying his child.

"I was never abusive, I never laid a hand on her, and I was always faithful to her," he said.

He said he was told Friday by a social worker for the state that the girls are doing well, their motor skills have returned, and "they were placed in their very best foster home."

He said he also was told their verbal skills are not as developed as they should be for their age.

"They communicate between each other, but not with other people," he said.

He said he's proud of how resilient the girls have been.

"That's what makes me think they're mine," he said. "My mother always told me I have the survival instincts of a cockroach."

Elisabeth Crossley and her mother, Ruth K. Cassidy, have been charged with two counts each of felony injury to a child.

The children were found sealed off in a bedroom, with no clothes, bedding or furniture. The girls were covered in fecal matter, as were the walls and floor.

The girls had bruising on various parts of their bodies and open sores.

Officers vomited after entering the room.

Scott Crossley decided to do an Internet search of Elisabeth Crossley on Friday because he just felt like something was wrong.

His wife's name quickly popped up in his search, with horrifying news headlines.

"It was so not what I was expecting," he said. "Maybe jailed for meth. But this? I just can't wrap my head around it."

He said the couple split up in May 2008, about a month before the girls would have been conceived. He said he didn't have any photos of him and his wife to share with The Press. They were married in December 2002 in San Diego.

He said every trace of their lives was consumed by flames in a burn barrel while he was on an "acid trip" on a Santa Cruz, Calif., beach.

Scott Crossley said he was told by the state of Idaho that the man his wife moved up to Coeur d'Alene with from California, Phil Baxter, is not the father of the girls. He said he and his wife broke up because of infidelity, in part from the affair she had with Baxter. The Crossleys met Baxter while they were in Santa Cruz.

He said he and his wife first got together in San Diego, then moved to Houston, back to San Diego, then Santa Cruz, and then Garberville, in northern California, where they eventually broke up. He said they spent at least a year and a half homeless together.

He said he doesn't plan on traveling to Coeur d'Alene to attend court hearings or a possible trial for either his wife or Cassidy.

"I don't want to see (Elisabeth)," he said. "There was so much anger and hatred when we separated."

He hasn't talked to her since 2008, though he has exchanged e-mails with Cassidy. He said he also doesn't plan on reaching out to anyone in her family, either in California or Illinois.

He said he can't understand why she allegedly abused and neglected the children, who were living with her and Cassidy at a Coeur d'Alene apartment.

"Maybe they reminded her too much of me," he said. "Maybe it was a way to get back at me."

He said he's concerned that both Elisabeth Crossley and her mother suffer from depression, and maybe that contributed to the girls' treatment.

He's not even sure why she decided to have kids. She would complain to him while they were together that kids didn't like her, and she would question whether she would make a good mom or not. He also said she had talked of having kids while they were together because she wanted more welfare benefits.

He said he and his wife, whose maiden name was Binder, used drugs while they were together, including marijuana, mushrooms, ecstasy, and she used methamphetamine before they met. He said he helped her kick her meth habit.

Describing himself, he said he was a professional wrestler in the "California Wrestling Association" from 1999 to 2002 and fought under the name "Mutant" (a nickname his mother gave him). He said he is currently living with a girlfriend in an apartment, and he's not working currently because of a heart-rhythm disorder.

He has his own channel on YouTube under the name MutantReigns and has a Twitter account under T1andOMutant (The 1 & Only Mutant).

"My ex is in jail for abusing our twin girls (what the heck)," he tweeted Friday.

After reading the coverage about the case, he said he was blown away by the kindness people in Coeur d'Alene have shown in donating to accounts set up for the girls after their mother and grandmother were arrested.

"I really appreciate all the people who came forward to help the girls," he said. "It says something good about Coeur d'Alene."